


Where I Belong

by Wolfsong6913



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien/Human Relationships, F/M, Falling In Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 10:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15022394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsong6913/pseuds/Wolfsong6913
Summary: Krolia has always been a Galra, but that doesn't mean she wants to join the Empire. She's always been a Blade too, way back through three generations, but that life of subterfuge and double-crossing doesn't appeal to her either. All she's ever wanted is a quiet place where she can call the shots on her own life.When her pod crashes on a blue-green planet known to its inhabitants as 'Earth', Krolia fears all her plans are in ruins. But this small, hostile planet just might hold the answers to all her questions, and finally help her realise just where she belongs.----Canon-divergent as of Season 6. Spoilers for Season 5, episode 5, Bloodlines





	Where I Belong

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so this is my first fic on this site! I don't really know what I'm doing with the tags, so please feel free to suggest any I might have missed.
> 
> So, I really fell in love with Krolia the moment she appeared on the show, and I really wanted to write something about her and how she met Keith's father. Season 6 destroyed some of my headcanons, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many it also confirmed. Hope you all enjoy, and tell me how I can improve.

\----

Krolia leaned hard on the controls, sending the small pod speeding away into space. She did not look back as the small station that had been her home for the past two years receded into the distance. Within dobashes, it was merely another twinkle in the eons of space, and just a few ticks after that, it was gone completely.

Krolia reset the control to autopilot and sat back in her chair, stretching her arms back behind her and arching her back. She gave a relieved sigh, and shook her head, sending thin hairstrands flying every which way. With her anger slowly dissipating, she began to skim through the computer’s database, trying to decide where she would go first. 

“I’ll show them all,” she muttered as she rapidly scanned the swirling, brightly colored images of distant systems. “Kolivan’ll have to eat his words. I can live peacefully apart from the Blades and the Galra Empire. I just need to find the right place to do it.” She paused on the picture of placid looking planet with pastel colored seas and fuzzy blue mountains. The caption to the right described it as an quiet planet with a livable environment, and no useful resources for a growing empire. It was unoccupied by Galra, and its native creatures were barely sentient. “Perfect,” Krolia whispered. Smiling to herself, she entered the coordinates in the navigation system. Turning, she peered anxiously out the back window of the pod. No lights but the stars glowed behind her, and the small moon base of Rateir was utterly out of sight.”Good,” she muttered. “No one’s following.” For a time, Krolia curled up in the deep pilot’s seat and watched the stars cross her path as she traveled through space. Eventually, the peaceful silence and glistening black sky began to cast a shadow over her mind, lulling her into rest. She yawned widely. Suddenly sleepy, she leaned the chair way back, and within dobashes, fell asleep.

\----

A jolt that shook the little pod like a bean in a jar woke Krolia from her sleep with an abrupt start. Instinct took over, and she automatically grabbed the controls, yanking hard to slow the ship down, and give her time to see what was wrong. The pod didn’t respond. Urgently, she glanced out the bay windows. Instantly, she realised what had gone wrong. One wing of the pod was gone, and smoke was billowing from the stump. All around the tiny pod, asteroids and their debris floated, aimless in space. “Stupid Blades and their ancient pods!” she muttered urgently, anxiously jiggling switches in an effort to get something to work the way it should. “What idiot left this thing without a working sensor for flying in debris fields!” Yanking hard on the control yoke, she managed to steer the downed pod toward the nearest planets. The closest were gas planets - she couldn’t land on those. But ahead she saw some terran planets. One was scattered with bright lights on its continents, and had a collection of satellites orbiting it. A space-capable species! Perhaps they could help repair her ship. Fresh with new hope, Krolia pushed the broken pod to its limits, straining to reach the small planet before all systems shut down and she was left trapped in space. 

Creaking and groaning, the pod plummeted through the atmosphere and fell at dizzying speed towards the surface of the blue-green planet. Krolia leaned hard on the controls until the nose of the pod was oriented toward one of the continents. In an effort to slow her speed, she opened all parachutes - at least this pod had some of those - and put all power toward forward thrusters. With a thundering crash, the pod landed hard on packed earth and skidded across the ground, sending clouds of dust billowing around the pod. Krolia hung on until the dizzying ride was over, then unstrapped herself from her harness with a groan. Dropping down to what was now the floor, she peered out the cracked window. Nothing but black rock and stunted plants met her eyes. Krolia growled, and slammed a fist down on the dashboard. Seriously? Of all the places to crash, it had to be one with no civilisation in sight! The impact of her fist shook the mangled metal, and a small flickering holo of the planet appeared, spinning above the dash. A jagged symbol glowed from the center of the planet, where the core would be. Krolia froze. Temrash. Used to indicate planets that were either unaware or hostile of life on other planets - often both. A warning sign to stay away. Krolia swallowed nervously, then tapped on the symbol. More information wrote itself beneath the image on the screen. 

'Inhabited By: Sentient species known as humans, along with companion species of lesser intellect. Known to inhabitants as Earth. Species is capable of reaching planets in local system alone. Is not commonly aware of other species. Species isolates and experiments on members not of its race. Will react with fear and violence to off-world visitors. Advisory: Avoid, or if you must visit, stay away from inhabited areas. Stay armed at all times, and leave as soon as possible.'

This was worse than she had thought. Not only was she trapped on an alien planet, it was a hostile alien planet at that! Suddenly aware she was crushing the battered remains of the controls beneath her claws, Krolia released her grip and took a deep, slow breath, trying to calm herself. Hostile it may be, but she had crashed in an area with no sign of anything for as far as she could see. With luck, it should be unlikely that anyone had actually noticed her approach. She would be safe for as long as it took to repair the pod - which, without any supplies, might be very long indeed. 

Suddenly, the interface raised an alert. Land-bearing motor vehicles had been detected approaching at a high speed. They were 5 dobashes from sight of the pod. Krolia gasped, and slammed a fist into the interface angrily. As quickly as she could, she brought up a detailed satellite map of the planet and zoomed in on her location. Scanning the surrounding area, she soon saw a cluster of buildings only a couple of miles over from where she was stranded. Alien or not, the identity of the buildings was obvious to Krolia: It was a military base. Krolia cursed, dropping to her knees and searching frantically under the pilot’s chair for her blaster. Her claws scraped the surface of the case, she yanked it out, ripped it open, and found the blaster crushed inside, destroyed by the force of her landing. Krolia dropped the case, horrified. Panic welled up inside her, sharpened by her fear. Her breathing increased in pace, hyperventilating. No! Struggling to remember her training, Krolia forced herself to take one deep, slow breath. Then another. Panic will not help anything, she reminded herself. She had to keep her wits about her. What else could she use as a weapon? The blaster was out. It was the only one on the whole pod. The pod itself had no weapons. Was there anything else?

Krolia’s hands fell to her hip, claws curling naturally around the hilt of the knife she kept there. Of course - she had her knife. Every member of the Blades was given one for their training, and the day they unlocked it was the day they were considered a full member of the Blades - even if they still had to complete their training afterward. Krolia had been something of a prodigy - she had unlocked her blade halfway through her first year of training, when she was still at her homebase of Coltus. She still found it ironic that the most reluctant student had also somehow been the best. 

Regardless, right now, the blade was her best bet against these unknown, probably hostile aliens. By slashing the door to bits, Krolia was able to slip out of the destroyed pod and take cover behind the battered thrusters, expanded knife - more properly a scimitar, she assumed - clutched in her gloved fist. Taking a deep breath of the unfamiliar air, she listened with all of her senses. The dry air hissed softly around her, rustling the sparse vegetation around her - was that feet, or just wind? She listened closer until she heard a faint scuffing noise - feet against sand. Behind her, and a little to her right. Krolia lept, whirled, striking out with her blade. She meant to only freeze the human with a blade to their throat, but she had misjudged the distance between them. Her scimitar sliced up through the air and struck the human’s face, slicing a neat cut straight through the ridge above its eye. The human yelped, and stumbled backwards, clamping one hand over the cut. It fell onto its back and stared up at Krolia, its uncovered eye wide with - fear? Shock? Amazement? Krolia swallowed her apologies for her mistake and put on a bold face, putting her blade at its throat. “Stand down, human,” she ordered, glad her voice didn’t show any of the fear she still felt. 

The human gulped - Krolia could see its throat moving, what a strange thing - and slowly raised its unoccupied hand in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not gonna hurt you, you… whatever you are,” it said. Krolia was very glad it understood her - at least the translator embedded in her throat was still working, unlike everything else. “I’m here to warn you. You need to get out of here right now, or risk being captured and, um, experimented on.”

Krolia cocked her head, disbelief warring for confusion in her mind. “If what you are saying is true, how did you know to come here and warn me?”

“That’s a really long story that I can’t tell right now. Please, you have to let me help you. These humans will kill you!”

“I am aware of this species’ dislike for extraterrestrial beings,” Krolia responded coldly. “How do I know you will help me when they won’t?”

“Because I’m alone? And horrible at fighting, and because you have a sword to my throat?”

Krolia considered this. “Reasonable,” she conceded. With one swift motion, she disabled the blade and slid the now-small knife back into its sheath. “Don’t try anything against me,” she warned. “And no sudden movements.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” the human reassured her. It climbed slowly to its feet, watching her out of its uninjured eye. “Come this way, I have a speeder.”

It quickly led the way across the rocky landscape, ducking behind boulders and clambering down small cliffs. At a spot about a hundred feet from the crashed pod was a small, concealed speeder. The human hesitated. It turned back to Krolia. “I can’t drive with only one hand,” it said. “Can you work it? We have to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

Impressed by the creature’s show of trust in her, Krolia studied the speeder. It was crude, but simple. “I’m sure I can figure it out. Get on.”

The human climbed on without hesitation. Krolia pushed her admiration at its quick obedience to the back of her mind, and mounted the driver’s seat. 

“That’s the throttle,” the human said, pointing out the corresponding knob. “Starter - the keys are already in - and brake. You got that?”

“Pretty much…” Krolia’s claws brushed over the controls, not pushing yet, just testing. “How high does it go?”

“Not very,” the human replied. “Enough to cross small dips, maybe - nothing higher than that.”

Krolia hummed acknowledgement as she explored the controls. Okay… She thought she could do this. 

“Hey you!” a voice barked from behind. “Stand down, by name of the Galaxy Garrison!”

“They caught up!” the human gasped. “Go, go, go!”

“I am going!” Krolia turned the speeder on and gunned the engine in one swift motion. The engine choked, the speeder lurched, then they were speeding across the canyon. Three vehicles followed from behind. They were faster than Krolia had expected. She leaned hard on the steering wheel and hurled the speeder across a low crack in the rock. It didn’t turn as fast as she had thought, and the vehicles were able to match her turn without losing any speed. Now they were catching up. “Lean left, human!” she ordered sharply.

“What?”

“Just do as I say!”

The speeder lurched with the shift in weight and changed directions sharply, skimming the surface of a tall cliff as it spun. One of the vehicles crashed into the cliff, unable to turn in time. The other two made the turn, but were significantly slowed by the near-collision. Krolia grinned to herself and gunned the engine, trying to get as much speed as possible. She glanced behind her to see where the vehicles were now. 

“Watch out!” the human cried. Krolia looked up and saw the other wall of the canyon approaching at a worrying speed. 

“Human, lean right!” she called. This time, it obeyed without hesitation, and the speeder just barely managed to avoid the towering wall of rock. One of the following vehicles even had to stop, lest they match the fate of their fellow behind, leaving just one remaining vehicle following the pair on the speeder. Krolia grinned, searching for someplace to crash this one too. Except, she couldn’t find one. They had left the region of most of the cliffs, going back would serve no purpose whatsoever, and the only thing ahead of them was - 

“Is that a cliff? Oh, nonononono!”

Krolia’s grin broadened, stretching across her face. “Yup.”

Then, the speeder flew off the cliff.

The human screamed shrilly, its voice ringing in her ears. “What are you doing? The speeder can’t fly!”

“Just shut up and trust me,” she yelled over her shoulder. She twisted the boosters on full force and yanked the throttle, strangling the rubber grip and turning her knuckles blue.The speeder lurched, caught between gravity and artificial power, bounced gently a couple of times, then settled down an appropriate distance from the ground and resumed its race. The human slumped weakly against her back, blowing out a long breath laden with relief that curled coldly around her neck. Above and behind them, the remaining vehicle skidded to a stop at the edge of the cliff. After a moment, it turned and went back the way it had come. Krolia smiled to herself, and picked up speed, determined to get to this human’s destination as fast as possible. 

\-----

The human was directing her from the backseat. “Left here - no, left! The other left!”

Krolia wrenched the speeder sharply the other direction. “Are we almost there yet?” she hollered over her shoulder.

“Not quite - watch out! Now right - that way! Right! Why are you going so fast? You have to turn! Now left - It’s just around the boulder. Stop!”

Krolia yanked the speeder into a tight circle, bringing it to a whirling stop just outside a small house. The human stumbled from the speeder as soon as she brought it to a halt, gasping for breath, one hand still clamped over its eye.

“Never… again…” it gasped. “Alien drivers… are crazy.”

“Who are you calling an alien?” Krolia asked, amused. She leaned casually against the handlebars, watching the human with an air of interest. It didn’t respond, simply stumbled over to the small house and practically fell inside. Krolia waited for a couple of dobashes, then followed when it still didn’t reappear. 

The inside of the small house was brighter than she had expected. The main room held very little furniture - a low table, a single chair - both made out of the same dark, hard wood. The majority of the remaining wall, floor, and, in some cases, ceiling space was taken up with diagrams, maps, energy readouts, wires, monitors - did they not have holo-screens? - and assorted machines of all shapes and varieties. Most were humming softly with coloured lights flashing on and off, or showing diagrams changing every couple of seconds, or printing images and charts. The sole window, despite being literally coated with papers and machines of all shapes and sizes, still managed to let in enough light to make the room seem, at the very least, friendly. The human was not in sight, but Krolia could hear it rummaging around in on of the adjoining rooms. It seemed to be ignoring her for now, so Krolia occupied herself with prowling around the room and seeing what sort of things it was measuring. The readings were quite confusing, and the writing in a language she didn’t understand. Nevertheless, a pattern soon began to emerge from the coloured lines she was looking at.

“You’re charting signals from the Galra empire!” she exclaimed.

The human appeared in a doorway, where it had finished bandaging its eye. “The what?” he asked.

“The Galra empire,” Krolia repeated. “What you have is rather crude and oversimplified, nothing the Blades don’t have, but it’s quite impressive for your species’ level of technology. Very well done.”

When the human was too long in responding, Krolia looked up and found it staring at her, mouth hanging open, already pasty face somehow gone even whiter. “What?” she asked.

“I… You…” the human spluttered.

“Yes?”

“You’re an alien,” it whispered, after a long moment of shocked silence. “An actual, real, live, alien standing in my house! And you know alien things!”

Krolia stared at it blankly. “I injured you, then escaped on a primitive speeder from others of your race, drove all the way here, and you’re just realising this now?”

“More like it’s finally registering,” the human admitted. It scratched the back of its head, an expression Krolia couldn’t decipher contorting its face. “All those instruments and readings I have here - I’ve been tracking alien signals for years. The Garrison tried to cover it up, but I knew aliens were out there. I must have raced out to at least four or five foreign objects that crashed, but all of them were either man-made, or the Garrison got there first. Then, when I saw your ship go down, and I actually made it, and you.. You…” He trailed off, gesturing futility at Krolia.

“Yes, well, you’re weird too,” Krolia retorted. “And, no offense to your hospitality, but I’d like to get back on my way. Anyway I can get some things to repair my ‘ship’ with?”

The human opened and closed its mouth several times without saying anything. “The Garrison has your ship now,” it said at last. “There’s no way for you to get it back. And I don’t think you could have used human-made parts for it anyway.”

“Hmm.” Krolia pushed some of the mess of papers away to clear a space, seating herself on the edge of the rickety table to think. “Are there any human ships I could use then?”

The human shook its head. “The Garrison has those too,” it said.

Krolia frowned. “This ‘Garrison’ sounds very controlling,” she said. “Have the humans been captured too?”

“Captured? Oh, no. The Garrison just oversees space exploration. They’re very… militaristic, and after a number of accidents, they had to get very specific and controlling over supplies.”

“You said they imprison and experiment on extraterrestrial visitors. That sounds very much like the Galra empire, and not justified by simply ‘accidents.’”

“I… Well… They are controlled by the government, it’s just… Humans aren’t good with things that are different. Please, just… Let things be for a while?”

Krolia stared at the human for several long, long seconds. “You don’t wish to be liberated?” she asked. “That sounds like something a people would say when they have given up all hope.”

“Look, we’re not under the Garrison’s control, okay!” the human half-yelled, another strange expression contorting its face. Krolia held up her hands in a gesture of appeasement. 

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to insult your pilots. But seriously. Is there another way I could get off this planet?”

“I… No. Not that I know of.” The human hesitated, taking a careful step closer to Krolia’s side. “I know this isn’t where you wanted to be - I hope you didn’t have any urgent appointments?”

Krolia pushed herself back to her feet and moved away from the human, crossing the cluttered room to stare out the large window. The vast landscape stretched out before her, sand and wind and emptiness, with no Galra in sight. “This isn’t where I intended to be,” she began slowly. “But it’s just as far from the Empire as I where I was trying to go.”

“Really? You’ll stay here, then?”

“As I don’t have any strong urges to be imprisoned and experimented on, yes, I suppose I will.”

“Awesome!” the human exclaimed. Krolia spun around to face it and caught its hand just before they seized her arm. It took a step away, grinning in an apologetic way. “Sorry - no touching, I get it. Just one question though.”

“What?” Krolia demanded when it did not elaborate further.

“Well,” the human drawled. “I know you said you didn’t want to be imprisoned and experimented on, but would you mind if I, um, gathered some information about you? And you… Tell me things about where you came from? For posterity? I’ve never been able to meet a real, live - “

“Stop there,” Krolia commanded, holding up her hand. “I won’t call you an alien if you won’t call me one.”

“Right, right,” the human agreed, nodding its head vigorously. “I understand. But… As for my question…?”

Krolia sighed. It looked as though there was no getting out of this one. “Fine,” she said. “But under one condition.”

“Anything!”

“That you help me find some way to get off this planet. As much as I enjoy the view, I’m not a fan of spending an indefinable amount of time with a species that routinely imprisons those different from themself. At the very least, I want the option to be able to leave at any time.”

“I swear on my name as a Kogane,” the human said solemnly, raising its right hand as it spoke, “That I will do whatever is in my power to assist you, um.” He raised his uninjured eyebrow at her, a question visible in his eyes.

Krolia hesitated a moment. Dare she reveal her name to this alien? This stranger? But there was clearly no Galra on this planet, so it probably couldn’t hurt - “Krolia,” she said.

“You, Krolia, in obtaining a personal ship to get you off this planet at whatever time you wish,” the human finished. It lowered its hand and flashed Krolia a bright smile. “Welcome to earth! My name’s Jake. We should find a place to get you settled in.”

“Alright,” Krolia agreed.. “Just - one more question?”

“What is it? I can answer everything!”

“Are you male, or female?” Krolia asked bluntly. 

The human stared at her for a moment, then doubled over in laughter.


End file.
